RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 - YouTube RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Jun 16, 2011 When my paternal Grandfather died some years ago, I was amazed to discover a collection of Rachmaninoff 78rpm albums among his possessions. What an unexpected delight to find that recordings existed of Rachmaninoff playing his own pieces. This recording was made in the Camden Church Studio number 2 with 70 musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra and released on Victor Records. Purists may object to what I've done to this recording (pseudo-stereo, EQ adjusted) but I wanted to bring this fantastic work to a wide audience. There is nothing better than hearing a composer play his own music; especially music as grand and romantic as this.

The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini's Caprices for solo violin, which has inspired works by several composers. After a brief introduction, the first variation is played before the theme. Paganini's theme is stated on strings with the piano picking out salient notes, after the first variation. Rachmaninoff likely got the idea of having a variation before the theme from the finale of Beethoven's Eroica symphony. Variations 2 to 6 recombine elements of the theme. The pauses and rhetorical flourishes for the piano in variation 7 herald a change of tempo and tone. The piano next gravely intones the Dies Irae, the "day of wrath" plainchant from the medieval Mass of the Dead, while the orchestra accompanies with a slower version of the opening motif of the Paganini theme. The piece is one of several by Rachmaninoff to quote the Dies Irae plainchant melody.

The 18th variation (which I came to know through the TV movie 'Somewhere in Time') is justifiably famous but the whole work is one of my favourites: a great composer showing off his talent whilst also producing great music. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano. Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski: Conductor. Recorded December 24, 1934. Category Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 | work by Rachmaninoff | Britannica.com Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 work by Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, composition for solo piano and orchestra by Sergey Rachmaninoff , premiered in 1934 in Baltimore , Maryland , with Rachmaninoff playing the solo part. The piece is a set of variations on Niccolò Paganini ’s Caprice No. 24 for solo violin .

In 1934, having already completed four piano concerti, Rachmaninoff began a new concerto -like piece consisting of 24 variations on Paganini’s well-known violin theme. The task was an ambitious one, given that the theme had already been used by other composers, notably Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms . Rachmaninoff’s piece is not a concerto in the conventional sense, having only one movement rather than the usual three, but it follows the tempo pattern of a typical concerto, beginning and ending briskly, with a slower middle section. The best-known of Rachmaninoff’s variations is the lyrical 18th, which presents a melodic inversion of Paganini’s theme, meaning that rising steps are transformed into equivalent falling steps and vice versa. Sergey Rachmaninoff. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Although the Paganini theme serves as the thematic foundation, a subsidiary melody, the plainchant Dies irae (“Day of Wrath”) from the requiem mass is also featured at times. This evocation of fire and brimstone appears most obviously in the 7th, 10th, and 24th variations.

Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - YouTube Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Sep 15, 2012 The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, (Russian: Рапсодия на тему Паганини, Rapsodiya na temu Paganini) is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934.

Rachmaninoff himself, a noted interpreter of his own works, played the solo piano part at the piece's premiere at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 7, 1934 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Rachmaninoff, Stokowski, and the Philadelphia Orchestra made the first recording, on December 24, 1934, at RCA Victor's Trinity Church Studio in Camden, New Jersey. Structure The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini's Caprices for solo violin, which has inspired works by several composers. The whole composition would take approximately 25 minutes to perform. All variations are in A minor except where noted. Introduction: Allegro vivace Rachmaninoff “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” Rachmaninoff “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” May 4, 2012 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op.

43 (1934) Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) Paganini Caprice No. 24 (printed) The 18th century violin virtuoso Nicolai Paganini’s legacy is nothing short of legend. In addition to arguably being the world’s first rock star, his performances were so jaw-dropping that his contemporaries concluded that he must have sold his soul to the devil in order to play so well. Paganini had to compose his own pieces in order to be able to show off his abilities, and no one else at the time would have even attempted to perform them. Centuries later, with the advantages of modern technology and advances in violin-making that make pyrotechnics much easier to navigate on the instrument, modern violinists still struggle with the difficulty of his compositions (the caprices’ fiendish difficulty does not exempt young violinists from being required to learn them–an informal survey of former Hot Springs violinists found that various loud curses best described the attitude towards the caprice played tonight). This particular caprice (a theme and variations itself) has led to an incredible number of variations by later composers.

While Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody for piano and orchestra is perhaps best known, composers such as Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber have all taken the theme for their own. The Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff fled his homeland after the Revolution of 1917, never to return. He found wild popularity in America, but his punishing performance schedule led him to compose only around a half-dozen more works during the course of the rest of his life. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was one of them, and aptly demonstrates his ability to adapt his Russian senses to the tastes of an American audience. It also demonstrates one of Rachmaninoff’s eccentricities–like Paganini, Rachmaninoff is hypothesized to have had Marfan’s syndrome, a disease that is characterized in part by long, slender limbs and large hands with a wide finger stretch. This might explain both Paganini’s “inhuman” abilities and the incredible difficulty of Rachmaninoff’s compositions (which he seemed to perform with great ease).

(a comic take on Rachmaninoff’s hands) The piece is not truly an unstructured rhapsody, but is actually a series of 24 variations, much like the original work. But while some of the variations are obvious, many of them are so subtle as to sound like completely new music. The famous eighteenth variation, for instance, was created by inverting Paganini’s theme, slowing it down, and applying careful orchestrational techniques until it evolved into one of the richest, most beautiful, most gut-wretching tunes of all time. The work opens with an introduction and then, untraditionally, a deconstructed version of the theme that is actually the first variation, all before the presentation of the theme. But in deference to Paganini’s caprice, every single violin is allowed to demonstrate the original theme with the piano only playing the barest skeleton. Then the pianist takes off to demonstrate his own virtuosity, and does not really relinquish control of the orchestra until the end of the work.

By the seventh variation, Rachmaninoff adds a new twist–in homage to Paganini’s supposed “deal with the Devil” and actual excommunication, the piano sounds a version of the chant “Dies irae” (Day of Wrath) over the lower strings, who staunchly pluck a variation of the Paganini theme. By the tenth variation, the chant is no longer veiled and the piano intones it in octaves over the clarinets, playing in their low register. The tone darkens, but when the 18th variation arrives, it is as though the sunlight has broken through the clouds. The 22nd and 23rd variations are connected by a brief cadenza, and from that point the piece builds to its conclusion. But the last cadence is a wink from Rachmaninoff, as he flips off a fragment of the nearly-forgotten theme to complete the work. ~program notes by Jessica Davis, copyright 2012 for permission to republish, contact theexplicatrix@gmail.com What does viagra do she helps to feel full the person in big group of people. that sometimes it appears rises the whole problem for many. But if you correctly use it.

That what problems you won’t have any more. Does viagra work and in my life I am absolutely precisely main character. So relax the rolls and live without thinking about the past. Which disturbed you. Click HERE for the 2017 Apprentice application form. Refreshing Hot Springs National Park Mentors Program Notes for Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody Program Notes for Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody Feb 25 & 27 MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS Robert Porco, director La mer et les mouettes (The Sea and the Seagulls) Marche funèbre (Funeral March) Le Chaperon rouge et le loup (Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf) Marche (March) Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 43 Cinq Études-tableaux Timing: approx. 25 min. Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl.

piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals a2, tambourine, triangle, field drum, glockenspiel, bass drum, tam-tam, chimes, strings CSO SUBSCRIPTION PERFORMANCES The CSO has performed this work on three previous subscription weekends, including the premiere in March of 1932, Eugene Goossens conducting, and the most recent in November of 2006, Gianandrea Noseda conducting. Rachmaninoff was born on April 2, 1873 in Oneg, in the Novgorod district of Russia; he died on March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California. Respighi was born on July 9, 1879 in Bologna; he died on April 18, 1936 in Rome.

Rachmaninoff composed the first of the five Études-tableaux in 1917; the second is dated August 17, 1911; the third was composed in 1917; the fourth was written on September 8, 1911 and revised on September 27, 1916; the fifth was composed on February 2, 1917. He first played the second of these pieces in Saint Petersburg on December 5, 1911; he premiered the others on November 29, 1917 in Petrograd. Respighi orchestrated the set in January 1930. Serge Koussevitzky conducted the first orchestral performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Brooklyn, New York, in December 1931. Rachmaninoff, one of the great pianists of all times, composed a lot of music for his own instrument. In addition to the concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, often performed at these concerts, he composed numerous works for piano alone. Among these are two sets of pieces called Études-tableaux (“Study-Pictures”).

Rachmaninoff’s biographer Geoffrey Norris characterizes the etudes as miniature tone poems, evocative of visual scenes or stories. The composer did not divulge the exact nature of his programmatic references, although one of the etudes (no one knows which one) was supposed to depict gardens in the rain. Some of the etudes are extremely pianistic and exhibitionist (Rachmaninoff actually broke a string of his piano while performing one of them), while others are intimate. The first set of etudes, Op. 33, contains eight pieces in different keys. Rachmaninoff composed it at his estate at Ivanovka in 1911. He had hoped for a summer of rest and relaxation but found that taking care of an estate was a time-consuming job. Thus he was able to compose only these few short pieces that summer. A few years later he was suffering from depression. He looked haggard, and thought of himself as an old man (he was forty-three). In the spring of 1916 he went to a spa in the Caucasus for a cure.

By summer he was feeling better and returned to Ivanovka, only to learn that his father had died there two days before the composer’s arrival. Depression returned. Rachmaninoff became obsessed with his own mortality. To keep his mind away from morbid thoughts, he composed new Études-tableaux. These nine pieces, eventually published as Opus 39, reveal in their almost unrelieved minor keys the composer’s unhappy state of mind. In addition many of them include references to the Dies irae, the old Gregorian chant “Day of Wrath” (this song of death is most famous for its appearance in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; Rachmaninoff himself was to make use of it many years later in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.) The conductor Serge Koussevitzky, with whom Rachmaninoff often collaborated, liked orchestral transcriptions of virtuoso piano music. In 1922 he persuaded Ravel to transcribe Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, to great success. The conductor then thought of a similar project, in which a different composer would orchestrate another group of Russian piano-pictures.

The music was to be from Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux. The conductor thought of Respighi, because of the spectacular orchestration in his Roman triptych, the final work of which—Feste romane (“Roman Festivals”)—had recently made a big splash. Respighi’s success at scoring music by Rossini (La Boutique fantasque) and others was well known. Furthermore, since Respighi had once been a student of the Russian master of orchestration, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff agreed to Koussevitzky’s proposal. Rachmaninoff chose five pieces from his two sets of etudes. He sent the scores to Respighi, along with some clues of the programmatic meaning behind them, so that Respighi could invent titles and devise orchestrations appropriate to the intended images or stories. The Russian composer put the slow, somber pieces first and last, but his Italian colleague changed the order. Respighi was not terribly enthusiastic about the task he had undertaken, believing it to be essentially a waste of time. But he nonetheless completed the orchestration with considerable skill and flair.

Rachmaninoff’s etudes are so pianistic that Respighi had to muster considerable inventiveness to make them work for orchestra. He used a lavish ensemble, adding vivid colors to the etudes. When he saw Respighi’s work, Rachmaninoff sent him a telegram of congratulations, full of enthusiasm for a “prodigious and brilliant orchestration” and for preserving the spirit of the original pieces. But Rachmaninoff had private reservations, finding Respighi’s scoring overdone in the more intimate music and complaining that the bells at the climax of the “Funeral March” movement seemed to turn a Russian funeral into a Roman festival. Rachmaninoff began to refer to the work as “Respighi’s suite.” Part of Rachmaninoff’s displeasure was the result of careless editing of the orchestral version. He found literally hundreds of errors in the music. He lost all enthusiasm for the project, and even declined to attend either Koussevitzky’s rehearsals or the premiere. Instead he sent his wife, asserting that whatever her reaction was would become his opinion. Mrs.

Rachmaninoff was not pleased—either with Respighi’s “overloaded” orchestration or with Koussevitzky’s “excessively fast” tempos. In later years “Respighi’s suite” sometimes showed up on an orchestral program when Rachmaninoff was soloist in one of his own concertos. Whether or not he changed his opinion of the orchestrated Études-tableaux after finally hearing them is not known. —Jonathan D. Kramer Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 43 Timing: approx. 24 min.

Instrumentation: solo piano, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, cymbals a2, triangle, glockenspiel, bass drum, suspended cymbals, harp, strings CSO SUBSCRIPTION PERFORMANCES The CSO has performed this work on 21 previous subscription weekends (with a number of renowned pianists in the soloist role), including the premiere in October of 1937, Eugene Goossens conducting and the composer himself as pianist, and the most recent in October of 20038, Vasily Petrenko conducting and Jon Kimura Parker, pianist. Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody between July 3 and August 18, 1934. The composer was soloist and Leopold Stokowski conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the first performance on November 7, 1934, in Baltimore. Rachmaninoff was one of the world’s great pianists.

During his mature years he spent so much time concertizing that he was unable to compose regularly. Thus we find that in 1926 he wrote the first version of his Fourth Piano Concerto plus a work for chorus and orchestra, yet no more music was forthcoming until 1931 when he wrote a solo piano piece. Again he fell silent until the Paganini Rhapsody in 1934, after which only two more works appeared: the Third Symphony in 1936 and the Symphonic Dances in 1940. He was able to compose only in relative seclusion. Thus he felt the urge to take up his pen once again after he had moved into a new home on Lake Firwaldstadt, near Lucerne. He had supervised the building of this house, which he called “Senar”—a name derived from his and his wife’s names: SErgei and NAtaly Rachmaninoff. He greatly enjoyed what time he could spend at Senar. He relaxed by motor boating, gardening, visiting with his children and grandchildren, and composing. He wrote from Senar to his friend Vladimir Vilshau: Two weeks ago I finished a new piece.

It is called Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra in the Form of Variations on a Theme of Paganini (the theme on which Liszt and Brahms based their sets of variations). It is a very long piece, about twenty or twenty-five minutes. That is the size of a piano concerto. I am going to try it out in New York and London, so that I can make the necessary corrections. The composition is very difficult, and I should start practicing it, but with every year I become more and more lazy about this finger work. I try to shirk practicing by playing something old, something that already sits firmly in my fingers. Rachmaninoff based his Rhapsody not only on the music of Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840), the great violinist who in essence invented virtuosity, but also on Paganini’s personality. In some of the variations Rachmaninoff alludes to the violinist’s life and character.

Rachmaninoff used not only the theme from the last of Paganini’s Twenty-Four Caprices for Solo Violin—the same theme Boris Blacher used for his Paganini Variations—but also the ancient death chant Dies irae (“Day of Wrath”), which had already been quoted by Liszt in his Totentanz and by Berlioz in his Symphonie fantastique. Rachmaninoff wrote to choreographer Mikhail Fokine in 1937: Why not resurrect the legend about Paganini, who, for perfection in his art and for a woman, sold his soul to an evil spirit? All the variations which have the theme of Dies irae represent the evil spirit. Variations 11–18 are love episodes. Paganini himself first appears in the theme and again, for the last time, now conquered, in Variation 23.… The evil spirit appears for the first time in Variation 7, where…there can be a dialogue with Paganini about his own theme and the one of Dies irae. Variations 8, 9 and 10 are the development of the ‘evil spirit.’ Variation 11 is a turning point into the domain of love.

Variation 12—the minuet—portrays the first appearance of the woman. Variation 13 is the first conversation between the woman and Paganini. Variation 19 is Paganini’s triumph, with his diabolic pizzicato. It would be interesting to represent Paganini with his violin—not a real violin, of course, but something fantastic. Also, it seems to me that the other personages representing the evil spirit at the end of the piece should be drawn as caricatures in their fight for the woman and Paganini’s art. Definitely as caricatures, representing Paganini. They also should be with violins, but even more fantastic and grotesque. Paganini, a ballet in three scenes by Rachmaninoff and Fokine, opened in London in 1939. The scenario largely followed the composer’s ideas. KEYNOTE. The work opens with an introduction, based on the principal motive from the Paganini theme. After the introduction the music goes directly into Variation 1, in which the theme is broken up in a “pointillistic” manner (divided among several instruments, forming “links” in a chain).

Only after this variation do we hear the entire theme. Rachmaninoff thus came up with an ingenious new way to treat the age-old form of theme and variations. He exposes the theme only after the first variation has been heard. The theme is unmistakable, as it is played by violins in unison, accompanied by the piano. Variations 2–6 work with this melody in its original tempo and mood. Variation 7 then introduces the Dies irae idea in the piano, while the bassoon and pizzicato cellos play the Paganini theme. Variations 8 and 9 treat the theme ever more forcefully, and then the Dies irae returns explicitly in the piano in Variation 10. The next variations are character pieces based on the Paganini tune. Variation 11 is an accompanied cadenza. Variation 12 is an eerie waltz in the minor. Variation 13 suggests a demonic waltz. Variation 14 is in the style of a march but still in the meter of a waltz, so that it sounds like a parade of three-footed soldiers.

The following three variations, beginning with the piano solo of Variation 15, are symphonic and virtuosic. Variation 18 brings a romantic outpouring reminiscent of Rachmaninoff’s earlier music, such as the passionate Second Piano Concerto and Second Symphony. This andante cantabile theme is not, as some program notes claim, Rachmaninoff’s own, but rather it is an inversion—an “upside-down” playing—of the Paganini melody. The string pizzicati and violin runs in Variations 19 and 20 (respectively) suggest Paganini’s prodigious performing technique. Variations 21 and 22 are scherzo-like. Variation 23 brings back the Paganini theme, and Variation 24 is the finale. As it approaches the end, the music pushes toward a typical grandiose conclusion, but at the last moment it wittily becomes a whisper and ends impishly with an echo of the introduction. —Jonathan D. Kramer The Bells, Op. 35 Timing: approx. 35 min.

Instrumentation: STB soloists, SATB chorus, 3 flutes, piccolo, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals a2, tambourine, triangle, bass drum, tam-tam, chimes, bells, harp, pianino, celeste, organ, strings CSO SUBSCRIPTION PERFORMANCES The CSO has performed this work only once before on a CSO subscription weekend, in February of 1974 under Erich Kunzel with choirs from Miami University, Northern Kentucky University and Highlands High School and soloists Patricia Wise, Seth McCoy and John Reardon. James Conlon led this work at May Festival concerts in 1982, 1989 and 2005. Rachmaninoff began work on his vocal symphony The Bells (in Russian, Kolokolá) in Rome during the summer of 1913, completing it upon his return to Russia later that year.

The work is based on Konstantin Balmont’s free Russian translation of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem. The first performance took place on November 30, 1913, in St. Petersburg, with soloists and chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre, under Rachmaninoff’s direction. The American premiere was given by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 6, 1920. The music is dedicated “to my friend Willem Mengelberg and his Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.” In their biography of Rachmaninoff, Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda report an interesting story about how The Bells came to be written. The narrator quoted by the authors is a friend of Rachmaninoff’s, a cellist named Mikhail Bukinik. I had a cello pupil, a Miss Danilova, who once came to her lesson in great agitation; while she played, she seemed very excited and eager to tell me something.

She finally revealed that Balmont’s translation of Poe’s poem The Bells had once made a great impression on her—she could think of it only as music—and who could write it as music but her adored Rachmaninoff! That he must do this became her idée fixe, and she wrote anonymously to her idol, suggesting that he read the poem and compose it as music. She excitedly sent off this letter; summer passed, and then in the autumn she came back to Moscow for her studies. What had now happened was that she read a newspaper item that Rachmaninoff had composed an outstanding choral symphony based on Poe’s Bells and it was soon to be performed. Danilova was mad with joy. But someone had to be told her secret—and that’s how all her emotions were unloaded during my lesson. She told me the whole story. I was astounded to think that our reserved and quite unsentimental Rachmaninoff could have been capable of being inspired by someone else’s advice—to create such an important work! I kept my pupil’s secret until Rachmaninoff’s death.

Note that Rachmaninoff is being described in this excerpt as “unsentimental”—an adjective few would associate with him on the basis of much of his best-known music. Yet Rachmaninoff was extremely reserved as a person (except in the company of his closest friends and family), and not all his music has the intense, heart-on-the-sleeve lyricism of the Second Piano Concerto or the Prelude in C-sharp minor. In The Bells, for instance, we will hardly find the broad, sweeping melodic gestures of those all-time favorites. It is an intensely dramatic composition that operates on several levels. The imitation of the sound of bells, in turn joyful and sad, becomes a backdrop for the expression of a wide range of emotions. That expression, however, is indirect. Each movement begins with an invitation to listen to the bells, which are then described “from the outside.” It is significant that there are no verbs in the first person singular in the entire poem, except when the fire is personified in the third movement (this is an element that appears only in Balmont’s adaptation).

In the last movement, which is about funeral bells, the first person plural is used to suggest communal mourning: even here, a more personal approach is avoided. In addition to the sound of the bells, another aural element plays an important role in the music. The intoxicating rhythm of the poetry, so irresistible in Poe’s original, was matched by Konstantin Balmont (1867–1942), who was one of the most respected Russian poets of his time. It was probably that rhythmic element that made Miss Danilova wish for a musical setting in the first place, and the music does full justice to Poe-Balmont’s verbal fireworks. Rachmaninoff’s fascination with bells did not begin with the choral symphony. In his early Fantaisie-tableaux for two pianos (Op. 5, 1893), the third and fourth movements imitate the sound of bells, which also appear in his opera The Miserly Knight (1903-05). The first movement is about the sound of sleigh bells. The merry sleigh ride “in the icy midnight air” is a symbol for youthful optimism.

The orchestra, chorus and tenor solo join together in an exultant melody with a colorful accompaniment. In the slower, dreamier middle section, the chorus sings with mouths closed, before a return to the joyful Tempo I. In the second movement, the soprano soloist sings of wedding bells. The music, however, is by no means a wedding march: it is, rather, a quiet and introspective piece concentrating on the solemn aspects of the ceremony. A gently rocking introductory theme sets the stage; a more sensuous, chromatically descending melody follows. The soprano’s first entrance echoes the gently rocking theme. The quiet choral refrains suggest a certain detachment: the chorus acts as a mere observer, not a participant. Next comes one of the wildest movements Rachmaninoff ever wrote. The “alarum bells” are sounding: there is a fire raging. Instruments and voices (there is no soloist in this movement) express great fear as the bells announce the terrible news. A menacing tremolo in the strings introduces the voice of the fire, which subsides for a brief moment, only to flare up again in a final eruption of violence. The last movement opens with a mournful English-horn solo.

The bells or pealing for a funeral procession, led, as it were, by the baritone soloist. After images of happiness, solemnity, and horror, we are forced to confront the specter of death here, which makes this movement, perhaps, the most personal in the piece. The orchestral colors are toned down, and the solo part is more speech-like than before. The inclusion of the “Dies irae” melody from the Gregorian Mass of the Dead, heard in so many of Rachmaninoff’s works, was really appropriate here. It appears briefly in the bassoon, shortly before the tempo begins to speed up for a vivid portrayal of a frightful ghost. The initial funeral music eventually returns, and the work ends with a lyrical postlude for orchestra, singing the soul of the departed to rest. —Peter Laki Rachmaninov - Composers - Classic FM Classic FM Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943) Biography Sergei Rachmaninov (also spelled Rachmaninoff, 1873–1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.

Rachmaninov, it seemed, could do nothing right by most of his contemporary critics' and composers' standards. As a person, he appeared somewhat cold and aloof - Stravinsky once called him "a six-and-a-half foot tall scowl". Life and Music Sergei Rachmaninov was born on April 1st 1873 in Semyonovo, north-west Russia. Rachmaninov's student years were nothing short of phenomenal. He consistently amazed his teachers with his jaw-dropping ability as a pianist and composer. In 1891 at the age of just 18, he created a storm with his First Piano Concerto, an incredibly accomplished student work. Music continued to flow from the young genius, including an apprentice opera, Aleko, in 1892. Rachmaninov seemed unstoppable, composing a great run of pieces including the Cello Sonata and the Second Suite for Two Pianos, both in 1901. However, his First Symphony from 1896 was roundly panned by critics, and caused the composer to enter a deep depression.

Rachmaninov's masterpiece was surely the Second Piano Concerto from 1901. It's subsequent use in the film Brief Encounter have made it a constant favourite. With his phenomenal conducting skills, Rachmaninov was appointed Principal Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1904 and offered several major posts in America, most notably with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He left Russia for good after the 1917 Russian revolution, first heading to Helsinki and finally ending up in the US. Rachmaninov died of melanoma on 28 March 1943, in Beverly Hills, four days before his 70th birthday. Did you know? In 1931 Rachmaninov's music was officially banned in the USSR as 'decadent' with the chilling warning: "This music [The Bells] is by a violent enemy of Soviet Russia: Rachmaninov". Rachmaninov: Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Piano Concerto No.3: Amazon.co.uk: Music By Mr. John Manning on 16 Feb.

2010 Format: Audio CD It may be enough for many to learn that Irkutsk-born Denis Matsuev won the 11th International Tchaikovsky competition. This disc demonstrates exactly why he gained that distinction. His style is highly individual, with a free use of rubato and breathtaking technique. In the concerto, he shapes the tender moments beautifully, and integrates perfectly with the orchestra, while in the virtuoso passages such as the first moment cadenza and the introduction to the third movement he is not afraid to cut loose, letting his heart rule his head and allowing his technique to make the connection from brain to sound with seemingly no difficulties in between the two. To me the performance has a live, caution-to-the-winds quality. I particularly appreciate the introduction to the concerto's second movement, a lovely piece of characterisation from Gergiev and his orchestra. The very last chord of the concerto could perhaps have an ounce more emphasis; it's obvious that I'm struggling to find a point of criticism. The same qualities from soloist and orchestra make the Rhapsody a joyful experience.

In my review of the earlier MAR0503 Tchaikovsky SACD, I was critical of the frequency balance of the recording, and to a lesser extent this one exhibits the same overall feel. Treble seems not to have the extended response offered by SACD, and the violins could sound a little sweeter. Bass is slightly plummy, but the lower end of the piano and double basses sound out well. The 5.1 surround tracks do not make great use of the rear speakers; I need to add an extra 2-3 decibels to bring the concerto up to my usual listening level, which does help to lift the sound out of the frontal plane slightly. The Rhapsody seems louder overall. Read more ›

Question: Rachmaninov's 'Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini' is a work for which solo instrument and orchestra?
Answer: PIANO